More than billion young people can lose their hearing to headphones

More than 1.3 billion young people can go deaf from listening to music too loudly on headphones or at concerts, an international team of scientists led by Karolinska University has found.

According to the WHO, about 430 million people in the world suffer from hearing loss, 34 million of them children. Deafness has long ceased to be a predominantly age-related problem, and every year the number of young people who partially or completely lose their ability to hear increases.

The main cause of neurodeafness is young people's love of using headphones and going to places with loud music, such as nightclubs. According to previous studies, headphone users often crank up the volume to 105 decibels, whereas an acceptable level is considered 75-80 decibels - and for a very short period of time.

In the new study, scientists analyzed 33 papers on the effects of loud music on the hearing of 20,000 people aged 12 to 34. It turned out that 50% of them regularly listened to music at up to 112 decibels.

Loudness over 85 decibels can cause hearing damage, according to scientists. Music that is too loud with headphones can damage the inner ear, the auditory nerve, reduce the number of hair cells and eventually lead to hearing loss and hearing loss.

With about 2.8 billion people between the ages of 12 and 34 on Earth, the team estimated that about 670 million to 1.35 billion young people are at risk of hearing loss.  The study was published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

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